Dangerous Strategy—-Apple’s Patent Lawsuit

As we all know, Apple has become one of the most influential companies with great cutting edge technology groups in the world. IPhone, as one of the most important inventions of Apple, is now common used by people. The touchable screen has attracted millions of customers. This week Apple profiled a lawsuit against HTC, a Taiwanese electronic company. In this article, the author standing on Apple’s side analyzed the inside threat of filing the lawsuit.

In 2007, Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, explained that Apple’s new touch screen was so perceptive and intelligent that you could use it without a stylus and it could detect and disregard unintentional touches and understand complicated multifinger gestures. He then emphasized how unique the technology is.

Actually, the author explained that this is a substitute war about Apple vs. Google. HTC whose phones run Google’s Android operating system was litigated that its devices broke 20 Apple patents related to iphone. The author, however, claimed it a dangerous and stupid act.

First of all, it’s not just about Google and Apple. This lawsuit can apply to every Apple rivals like Microsoft, Blackberry’s manufacturer and so on. In three year, now, almost all company makes multi-touch phones. The multi-touch technology is not unique at all, it’s omnipresent now. This lawsuit is a dangerous strategy for Apple. According to the author, the patent lawsuits normally take years to go through the court and get not exact benefit from it. This lawsuit is not good for almost everyone. Obviously, it’s not good for competitors. Also, it’s not good for customers, business depend on smart phones, mobile-software makers and so on. Lastly, it doesn’t help much to Apple itself. This case will definitely arouse the competitor’s uncertainty. The author was quite sure that all other companies will use its legal department to find out he violate part between iPhone and its own product.

Moreover, the author said that the crying from industry have long pointed out that “the system for patenting software is broken”. According to the author, the patent related to software is always rest in doubtful legal, so neither Apple nor any other company should be able to claim ownership of such a “basic and far-ranging tech conception”. The author also predicted that Apple would lose this lawsuit.

In my opinion, I, as a customer, also don’t support this lawsuit as it definitely caused problem for customers. It caused hesitation when buying the phones. We will doubt about the patent of other companies and at the same time, we will be uncertain whether Apple may win this lawsuit. Who will buy a phone that someday its system might be claimed illegal?

For those all reasons, I really feels concerns about this lawsuit.

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Hi Elaine. After reading your article, I feel this market is full of competition. Apple’s lawsuit is kind of selfish… I think of Marie Curie: when she found the Radium element, she did not apply for patent and she did not get any benefit from her discovery. So for the technological market, they should not monopolize it. What they need to do is to be more innovative and try to invent a better system for costumer’s sake. I also agree with you about the option concern. If there is nothing but Apple left, how can we possibily know what can be better?